Chapter 1235: Give and Take

Whether in the past or now, these tactics were second nature to him. However, just at this moment, shouts of battle suddenly shook the sky from behind Cotton Village, and a force of troops emerged from the forest, no one knew from where! Not to mention the Pi Xia soldiers, even the Xuan Lu Ghost King was startled.

Because the avatar he had sent with Commandant Shi's unit had suddenly lost contact with him!

Earlier, Commandant Shi had clearly led men to block the cave entrance; where had these thousand-plus enemies charged out from?

The Xuan Lu Ghost King was, after all, a master of manipulating illusions, and after a moment's thought, he understood:

A trap.

The opponent's trap wasn't set at the cave entrance, but in that patch of scrub forest! The scrub forest looked empty, and Commandant Shi and his avatar hadn't worried about the opponent playing tricks, so they had led the team through it.

Likely, that was where they had stumbled into the trap set by the enemy! The opponent must have had a spatial artifact, containing a self-contained small world, and had disguised the opening as a scrub forest, waiting for them to walk right into the net.

For his avatar to escape, it had to find the way of life and the flaw; it couldn't be counted on for the moment.

Trapped along with Commandant Shi were 700 Pi Xia soldiers.

The Xuan Lu Ghost King's face was gloomy.

With Commandant Shi and his avatar in trouble, the real stone cave now hid enemies, and they were swarming out, immediately changing the ratio of enemy to friendly forces.

The opponent's numbers were close to 2,700 or 2,800, while his side had only 1,300, plus dozens of corpse puppets!

Of course, the Ghost King was still confident of victory. He had numerous yin soldiers, and the combat power of the corpse puppets far exceeded that of humans. The suicide squad formed by the Gaopu puppets was like a sharp knife, still capable of cutting the enemy to pieces. These 300 death-defying soldiers alone were worth at least the combat power of 1,000 enemy troops.

Therefore, he was unafraid.

But the trouble was, this battle was only a warm-up. His real target was Stone Village, was Luo Shengjia! There was bound to be another grueling battle waiting for him there. The battlefield was like a chessboard; throwing all his pieces away now was not worth it.

No, that wasn't right!

He suddenly realized: if even the battle at Cotton Village was beyond his expectations, it meant the opponent had calculated earlier that he would launch a sneak attack here. So, was Luo Shengjia still at Stone Village? The Xuan Lu Ghost King cursed and directly ordered a retreat! Knowing it was a trap, what was the point of fighting hard? Retreat, everyone retreat for me! Just as the Pi Xia soldiers were about to change direction, a general charging out from the forest led his troops straight toward the Xuan Lu Ghost King, shouting: "Where are you going, Xuan Lu? Want to abandon your companions and run away first again?"

These words struck home. The Xuan Lu Ghost King frowned and turned his head to look.

It was none other than Boss Situ Yu himself in command.

This was also beyond the Xuan Lu Ghost King's expectations. For the sake of the kid surnamed He, Boss Situ Yu had actually mobilized himself?

Boss Situ Yu, seeing the Xuan Lu Ghost King's face clearly, was also instantly filled with fury: "You shameless ghost, do you not have a face of your own?"

He was all too familiar with that face; it was the Gaopu Kingdom general Qi Tianbo, who had gone missing after being captured!

Qi Tianbo and Boss Situ Yu were fellow disciples and had a very close personal friendship. He had fallen into the hands of the Pi Xia people before the country fell, and Boss Situ Yu had been searching for his whereabouts ever since.

Who would have thought he had become the Xuan Lu Ghost King's skin suit!

The Xuan Lu Ghost King had so many skin suits, yet he had chosen Qi Tianbo for tonight's attack; wasn't that clearly meant to disgust people? The Xuan Lu Ghost King turned his head and used Qi Tianbo's face to chuckle at Boss Situ Yu. The smile was both familiar and eerie: "You claim to be loyal and brave, but you aren't that firm either. Qi Tianbo's soul was extracted by me; he didn't last two days before weeping and wailing, begging for death."

Boss Situ Yu was so angry his face turned blue, but it didn't delay the orders he issued one after another: "Stop him! Today, we shall defeat the Ghost King at Cotton Village and avenge my old country and old friend!"

The Ghost King had helped the Pi Xia people attack Gaopu; Boss Situ Yu indeed had national and personal grudges against him.

With him leading the charge, the morale of the Boss Situ army on the battlefield soared. Commanders of all sizes worked hard to adjust their formations, and the gaps in the military formation that had been torn open by the corpse puppets gradually closed.

They had different innate talents, but their numbers were limited. The Boss Situ army was not crushed in one wave; instead, after passing the initial panic, they began to counterattack in a targeted manner.

Many projectile throwers grabbed spears and aimed them at the corpse puppets' eyes.

These corpse puppets almost all had the characteristic of being impervious to blades and spears, and for some reason, their resistance to magic and supernatural powers was also shockingly high. The evil ghosts were deeply hidden within; even Fu Liushan's talismans couldn't drive them out. Therefore, for ordinary soldiers, the fragile eye area of the corpse puppets was the only breakthrough point.

The thrown spears were all dipped in a bit of vermilion at the tip. That was a paste specially prepared by the Celestial Master using cinnabar, ghost-weeping grass, and other materials, then refined with Samadhi True Fire, also known as "Ghost Poison Paste." As long as the spear could pierce the corpse puppet's eye, the Ghost Poison Paste could take effect, wounding or driving away the evil ghost hidden deep within.

Before long, two corpse puppets were struck and collapsed to the ground—the evil ghosts driving them had vanished, but the ghost poison remained in the corpse puppets' bodies, so the other evil ghosts under Xuan Lu's command couldn't temporarily fill the vacancies.

Just seeing these spears succeed, the Xuan Lu Ghost King could further confirm that his opponent had been secretly preparing to deal with him all along.

That centipede corpse puppet had already hugged and killed over a dozen soldiers, the ground covered in blood and organs, and no one dared to approach it. It was just about to find a few more victims when a roar erupted from the side, followed by its forehead being struck by a heavy object, *bang, bang, bang* several times.

The centipede immediately coiled back, but didn't expect that what the opponent was wielding was a thick tree trunk. It coiled around the trunk, and the blades on its sides shaved off wood chips that fell in a flurry.

Coiled wrong? Just as it was about to let go, the Ghost Ape had already seized the opportunity to hug its head and break it hard—

It snapped, and simultaneously exploded with pulp.

Even for a corpse puppet, without a head, it couldn't move.

The three or four evil ghosts controlling the centipede fled for their lives. The Ghost Ape raised its staff and calmly picked them off one by one.

Its staff was thick and large, consuming the most Ghost Poison Paste.

The Ghost Ape turned its head and saw that fat corpse puppet with seven hands and eight feet chasing people, so it jumped over to intercept. Although the Boss Situ army could throw spears, that fat guy's head could be retracted directly into its body, using thick fat to protect itself.

Seeing the Ghost Ape coming to attack, it retracted its head again, curling itself into a ball.

No matter how it was struck with the Purple Gold Staff, it was full of elasticity; the harder the Ghost Ape struck, the higher it would bounce.

The result of beating a ball was that you could only chase it everywhere.

Finally, the Ghost Ape became irritable, and hearing its master's instructions in its ear, it extended its palm to grab the fat guy's hair and pulled outward with force.

You think you can just be a turtle retracting its head?

The Ghost Ape's strength was incredible. No matter how tightly the fat corpse puppet retracted its head, it was still pulled out bit by bit.

The few evil ghosts hidden deep within tried their best, but they just couldn't resist such a strongman.

The fat corpse puppet's miserable face was finally revealed again, but its eyes were tightly closed, terrified of being taken advantage of by others.

The Ghost Ape grabbed its hair and pulled outward; as soon as it let go, it would retract again.

Begging for monthly votes~ Considering that we are updating hard even during the New Year, shouldn't you all~?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1236 =====